Court Rules AT&T Must Pay In Throttling Case

February 25, 2012 — Ron Chusid

An unlimited data plan should be exactly that–unlimited. Instead cell phone companies often use the word unlimited to sell plans but don’t really mean it. For example, AT&T has been throttling down the speed of phones, even if not using very much data compared to limited plans. The phones still work, but they cannot be used to stream video, and web browsing becomes very slow.

Matt Spaccarelli sued AT&T, complaining that his phone was throttled after using only 1.5 gigabytes to 2 gigabytes of data during a billing cycle. In contrast, people purchasing a tiered plan for the same price Spaccarelli paid at $30 would get 3 gigabytes of data. Spaccarelli was awarded $850. Unfortunately AT&T’s small print prevents class action suits so each customer in his situation will have to sue individually.

Of course the clause has held up in court.
Corporations exist to insulate the people who run a business from the consequences of their actions. It began as a way for investors to pool their money to protect themselves from the financial consequences of failure. It slowly evolved into a mechanism to shield them from the legal consequences. When it is impossible to criminally prosecute corporate executives for negligent homicide when their actions kill people, it is only the next logical step to seek ways to shield them from paying the funeral bill as well.
AT&T’s customer service agreement is a far cry from faulty air bags or toxic chemicals dumped into well water but they want to protect themselves from class action lawsuits for the same reason as other big corporations: they know they are guilty of something, they just aren’t entirely sure what until the quarterly review.